


A Proportional Response

by cordeliadelayne



Category: Primeval
Genre: Fluff, Getting Together, Kissing, Light Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-13
Updated: 2016-05-13
Packaged: 2018-06-08 02:40:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6835654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cordeliadelayne/pseuds/cordeliadelayne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stephen's relationship with time isn't the only thing that's changing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Proportional Response

**Author's Note:**

  * For [telperion_15](https://archiveofourown.org/users/telperion_15/gifts).



> Set in Series 1. Written for telperion_15 for having written a drabble for every one of primeval100's challenges in 2011. She gave the prompt, “sunshine on a rainy day”.
> 
> Originally posted to Livejournal in 2012.

Stephen sat on the grass, his back up against the side of the Hilux, his long legs stretched out in front of him. Connor was animatedly discussing something with a couple of the soldiers guarding the anomaly – who were doing a good job of looking marginally interested -, Abby was chopping up vegetables to entice the creature back home and Claudia was talking on her mobile, no doubt filling Lester in on their latest escapade.

But Stephen only had eyes for Cutter.

They hadn't been getting along as well as usual, since what Connor had dubbed “the Dodo betrayal” in a rather endearing attempt at coping with the loss of his friend. He and Cutter hadn't exactly fallen out, but there was a tension in the way their arms brushed that hadn't been there before, and a reluctance to make eye contact that Stephen found particularly disconcerting.

A light rain started to fall and Stephen blinked water out of his eyes. Everyone looked around for a moment, trying to judge whether or not to pack up the camp and retreat into the warm.

“What do you think?” Claudia called out to Ryan, her clear voice cutting across the clearing.

Ryan made a point of tilting his head back, exposing his neck muscles as he examined the sky. It was so utterly shameless that Stephen had to stifle his smile behind his hand, especially when he caught sight of Claudia's now flushed face.

“Don't think it'll turn into much,” was Ryan's considered opinion after a short pause.

Claudia licked her lips and then nodded. “I'll make us all some tea,” she decided, and no one was surprised when Ryan offered to help.

“Love blossoming in the team already, eh?” Stephen said as Cutter approached the car.

Cutter dropped his keys and then fumbled with them in the damp grass.

“What – what was that?” he asked.

Stephen frowned. “Claudia and Ryan,” Stephen said, “love's young dream.”

Cutter stared at him and Stephen felt decidedly uncomfortable – Cutter had never shown any problem with light-hearted gossip abut colleagues before.

“Claudia and Ryan,” Cutter repeated as if the words were alien to him. “Claudia and Ryan.”

“Are you all right?” Stephen asked, genuinely worried now.

Cutter moved around the side of the car and got in it, avoiding Stephen and his question. Stephen decided himself too weary to try and understand what was going through Cutter's mind this week and stayed where he was. But after a few minutes Stephen shivered as the rain started to beat down harder and, deciding that the better the devil you know, he too got into the car. Cutter looked over at him as if he'd never seen him before.

“Right,” Stephen said. “What's going on?”

Cutter shrugged and turned away. Two soldiers were standing by the flickering anomaly, getting absolutely soaking wet, whilst the others all rushed to shelter as the rain started to cascade from the sky and a low rumble suggested a storm was on the way.

“Nick?”

Cutter shifted in his seat. “Have you ever been in love?” he asked.

Of all the things Stephen was expecting him to say, that had never occurred to him. “I – what?”

“I was just...wondering.”

Stephen looked incredulous. Cutter had never “just wondered” anything in his life.

“Once,” Stephen said, deciding to err on the side of the truth. Though if Cutter asked who he'd been in love with he wasn't sure which way his conscience would send him.

“Do you think it's possible to love more than once? Repeat the same experiment again? Get different results?”

Stephen considered his answer carefully. Very rarely did Cutter pull out the science metaphors, and it never boded well.

“I suppose. Did you have anyone in mind?” He tried to make it sound like a joke, but it came out a little strained.

“I think I fell out of love with Helen a long time ago,” Cutter said, ignoring the question. “I was just going through the motions, going on instinct. If I'd thought about our marriage, where it had ended up...I can't believe how little I know her. There's nothing left of the woman I fell in love with. Maybe I'd never really...”

Stephen frowned as Cutter trailed off. Usually Cutter only got this maudlin over a bottle of Scotch. And he hadn't spouted about Helen like this in years.

“Cutter, what's brought this on?” He put a tentative hand on Cutter's knee, not quite sure what he was doing, or even what he was expecting. “Has something happened?”

Cutter looked down at Stephen's hand and then away again. “I've just woken up,” he said. “That's all.”

Stephen’s breath caught in his throat. “Oh,” he said.

Cutter kept staring ahead at the windscreen, the rain obscuring the world outside. They could easily be the only two people in existence, hidden away from everyone and everything that was pressing down on them.

“I knew you cared, of course,” Cutter said. “I knew you'd risk your life for me. But these last few months, everything’s become much more real. And when I think of what Helen did, leaving you for dead, and then betraying us all...I realised I've never wanted Helen by my side as much as I want you.”

Stephen squeezed Cutter's knee. “Right,” he said. “So, now what?”

Cutter didn't say anything for a very long time and Stephen became aware that the rain was letting up. The first few slivers of sunlight drifted into the clearing. The soldiers were still standing there, looking as if they'd taken a swim fully clothed. Ryan and Claudia were talking together under a large tree, their bodies just a shade closer together than they had been that morning. Abby and Connor were handing out flasks and sandwiches to the soldiers, laughing and joking with them.

“Now,” Cutter said, “now we do anything we want.”

And then he pressed a light kiss to Stephen's lips, the first of many.  



End file.
